Former New Jersey Governor and U.S. Rep. James Florio (D-NJ) prompted a discussion on the healthcare challenge of cutting costs and still meeting the healthcare needs of the population at a conference hosted by the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI). The discussion was around the efficient use of highly-trained professionals to offset the need to hire more workers.

Among the panelists for this discussion was Lisa Biggs, MD, associate chief medical officer at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Biggs presented some of the issues related to cutting healthcare costs which are unique to pediatrics. She noted one such challenge as being the difficulty of measuring the quality of healthcare provided by pediatricians, as some of these indicators may not be apparent until much later in the lives of pediatric patients.